Primary Menu

What We Believe

As a confessional church we at Oak Glen United Reformed Church hold to the biblical truths summarized in the historical creeds of the church of Jesus Christ (Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed) as well as in the confessions that stem from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th Centuries, often described as the Three Forms of Unity (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession and Canons of Dort). We find it helpful and proper as a confessional church to highlight what we believe as a church in the following ways:

CREATION, FALL AND REDEMPTION

CREATION

We believe that in six days God created heaven and earth out of nothing and that along with his good creation, he also created mankind good and in the image of God.

FALL

We believe that our first parents, Adam and Eve, tempted by the devil, recklessly disobeyed God, and that man, therefore, robbed himself and all his descendants, poisoning his nature, so that we are all born sinners, and we are all guilty before God, deserving eternal condemnation.

REDEMPTION

We believe that, thanks to the righteous work of Jesus Christ as true God and true man, we are freed from the power and penalty of sin, made right with God through Christ’s shed blood, and made new creatures spiritually by way of the Holy Spirit.

SIN, SALVATION, SERVICE

SIN

Left to ourselves we are sinners who are enslaved to sin and worthy of eternal condemnation, unable to pay the debt of our sin to God.

SALVATION

Only the one God in three persons can deliver us from our sinful misery, as God the Father sends God the Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Righteous Savior and as they together send God the Holy Spirit into our lives so that the righteousness of Christ might be applied to us as new creatures in Christ.

SERVICE

Through our praise, prayers and everyday Christian practice, we seek to serve God according to his word, in thanks and adoration to God.

THE FIVE “SOLAS”

SOLA SCRIPTURA (SCRIPTURE ALONE)

Scripture, comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, is the sole standard we trust for our faith and practice as the word of God.

SOLA FIDE (FAITH ALONE)

We believe that we are made right with God in Jesus Christ through faith alone and not because of any righteousness of our own.

SOLA GRATIA (GRACE ALONE)

We believe that we receive our justification with God in Jesus Christ solely as a gracious gift from God, not as those who earn this justification by our own righteousness.

SOLO CHRISTOS (CHRIST ALONE)

We believe that the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, who shed his blood on the cross, can make us right with God.

SOLA DEO GLORIA (TO THE GLORY OF GOD ALONE)

In light of his greatness, goodness and grace to us, we believe that God alone deserves the glory in our lives.